Holiday In the Hamptons

by Sarah Morgan

  Fliss hoped her mouth wasn’t open. “No,” she said. “I didn’t know.”

  “Why so surprised?” Her grandmother studied her over the rim of her glasses. “You think poker is something played by men throbbing with testosterone in a smoke-filled room, is that it?”

  “I wouldn’t say no,” Jane murmured and Fliss grinned.

  “It’s true you don’t exactly fit the vision in my head.”

  “It keeps our brains sharp and it’s fun, even though Rita usually wins.”

  Dora tutted. “Because none of us can ever read her expression.”

  “That’s the Botox,” Rita said cheerfully. “And I like the sound of men throbbing with testosterone. Could we invite a few for our next session?”

  Fliss laughed. “Are you playing for cookies?”

  “Goodness no. Money.” There was a gleam in her grandmother’s eye. “What’s the point otherwise?”

  Fliss decided there was plenty she still had to learn about her grandmother.

  “I’ll take Charlie and leave you all to your gambling habit.”

  “Thanks, honey.” Her grandmother put her cards down on the table. “She’s been walking Hero for Matilda and Charlie for me twice a day. He’s looking better for it. Lost a bit of weight and he’s calmer. Better behaved. She takes him to the beach and lets him run.”

  Dora glanced up. “I thought it was Harriet who was going to come and stay with you until you’re back on your feet.”

  “Turned out it was Fliss.” Her grandmother’s voice was calm. “Which was lucky for me. She’s sorted out all my paperwork and my finances, which were in a horrible mess. And she’s great with Charlie.”

  Rita looked confused. “I thought Harriet was the one who has the gift with animals.”

  “Fliss has a gift, too. And she’s not as soft as Harriet. They know they can’t mess with her, which is a good thing. And she has a savvy business brain, does my Fliss. She’s built a thriving business from nothing, and in New York City, where thousands of businesses go under daily.”

  Fliss felt a rush of gratitude. She wasn’t used to people defending her. She was usually the one doing the defending.

  “If we’re moving on to that subject, I need more tea.” Jane helped herself. “When your grandmother starts, there’s no stopping her. If we let her, she’d spend our entire poker session boasting about you.”

  Fliss smiled. “I think you mean Harriet.”

  “No, dear, I mean you.” Jane stirred her tea. “She talks about you all the time. So much so that sometimes we have to give her a warning. We all boast about our grandchildren, but she does it longer and louder.”

  Fliss felt a rush of confusion. “She talks about me?”

  “Of course. She’s very proud of you.”

  “You never met a stronger, braver, more determined woman than my Felicity.” Rita and Dora chorused the words together and then burst into laughter.

  Her grandmother sent them a cool look. “Is there a reason I shouldn’t boast about my granddaughter?”

  Her grandmother talked about her with her friends? Boasted about her? She was proud? To her horror, Fliss felt her throat thicken. “I’d better take Charlie. He’s waiting by the door.”

  Dora took a sip of tea. “You’re lucky, Eugenia. I wish there was someone who could help walk my Darcy. I’ve kept his walks very short since my arthritis started playing up. He does miss the beach so much.”

  Fliss was relieved at the change of subject. The lump in her throat dissolved without causing further problems. “I could walk him for you.”

  Dora lowered the cup. “Would you?”

  “Why not? I’m here, I have time on my hands, and I’m already walking Hero and Charlie.”

  “If she does, then you’ll pay her,” her grandmother said. “And you’ll pay her a fair rate.”

  “I’m starting to understand why you’ve never sold this place to all the people who come knocking,” Rita said. “You drive a hard bargain.”

  “My house has never been for sale. Nor has my friendship. And you can laugh all you like, but my granddaughter is not running a charity. She runs her own business, you know, in Manhattan.”

  “The Bark Rangers,” all four women chorused, and this time Fliss smiled.

  “You know about us?”

  “Every detail. We have celebrated every new milestone right along with you,” Dora said. “And I’m happy to pay. I’d expect nothing less. Would you do it for me, honey? Darcy is very social and he’s not getting out enough.”

  Fliss took Charlie’s lead from the cupboard by the door. “Of course. What breed of dog is he?”

  “He’s a Labrador. A great big softie. Twice a day would be good, if you think you can fit it in. And he’s a very indiscriminate eater, so you have to watch that. Your grandmother is right. You’re a good girl.”

  No, Fliss thought. She wasn’t a good girl. But she was happy to walk dogs. “Not a problem. I’ll give you the questionnaire we use, then meet Darcy and work out a plan. I can start tomorrow if you like.”

  “Thank you. I guess all that walking is why you have such a great figure.”

  Feeling more comfortable among them, Fliss leaned forward and stole a cookie from the plate on the table. “Which book are you reading for your book group?”

  “Matilda’s latest.”

  Remembering the pages she’d read, Fliss lifted her eyebrows. “They’re pretty racy.”

  “That’s why we read them. There was a time when we used to find our excitement between the sheets, but now it’s between the pages. And talking of excitement—” her grandmother studied her over the top of her glasses “—I didn’t hear you come home last night. How was your date?”

  “She had a date?”

  Five pairs of eyes were suddenly fixed on her with interest, and Fliss paused with the cookie halfway to her mouth, wishing she’d left when she had the chance.

  “It wasn’t a date.”

  “He invited her over and cooked her dinner.” Her grandmother glanced at her friends. “In my day we called that a date.”

  “Grams—”

  “It must have been a date,” Dora said, “because she doesn’t want to talk about it. When you don’t want to talk about a man, it’s a sign that you’re interested.”

  “Who was the man?” The question came from Rita, and Fliss started backing toward the door, panic rising along with the color in her cheeks.

  “It was no one—”

  “Seth Carlyle.” Her grandmother picked up her cards and studied them. “Our sexy vet.”

  “The most eligible man in the Hamptons,” Dora said. “It’s time someone snapped him up.”

  “She already snapped him up once before,” Jane muttered. “Your memory is failing you, Dora.”

  Fliss squirmed. “I’m not snapping him up, Rita. I’m not doing anything at all with him.”

  “Shame. So you’re not seeing him again?”

  She’d thought about it all day and decided it was stupid to see him again. There was a difference between a casual encounter and going sailing. She’d been planning on texting him. “It was casual, that’s all.” She tried to forget the way Seth had looked at her when they’d stood side by side on the beach.

  Jane looked interested. “So you saw his new place?”

  Fliss opened her mouth, but her grandmother spoke first.

  “I’m glad he has his own place. Ocean View is beautiful, but it can’t be easy rattling around in that big old house without his father.”

  “I agree.” Dora nodded. “The boy needs to sell it.”

  But he didn’t want to, Fliss thought. Selling it was going to break his heart. He felt as if he was giving away all those memories.

  “Boy?” Martha raised an eyebrow. “Maybe my vision is better than yours because I don’t see a boy. Our vet is all man. Those shoulders!”

  “And his arms.”

  “For me it’s those dark eyelashes and the stubble,” Rita murmured. “T
he man has more sex appeal than I’d know what to do with.”

  Fliss opened her mouth and closed it again. She’d known exactly what to do with it.

  She still did, which was another reason to keep her distance.

  “It’s the Italian blood. Mama mia. He’s a strong man, but so gentle with the animals. Sometimes if I use my binoculars and stand on a chair I can see him running on the beach,” Jane confessed and Dora smirked.

  “I see him regularly since Darcy’s arthritis got worse.”

  Rita gave a little cough. “I overheard Mrs. Ewell in the library the other day confessing that half the women in this area take their pets when they’re not really sick, just so that they can talk to Seth. He has such a calming way about him. In a crisis that man is rock solid.”

  Fliss gaped at them. “You’re saying people take their animals when they’re not really sick?”

  The women exchanged glances. “It’s been known,” Jane said, polishing her glasses.

  “Well, I envy the woman he ends up with.”

  “Me, too.” Jane slid her glasses back onto her nose and glanced at Fliss. “Does he kiss well, honey?”

  “Jane Richards!” Her grandmother intervened. “She hasn’t kissed him since she was eighteen. She’s not going to remember how he kissed.”

  She remembered. She remembered the feel of his hands and his mouth. The rip of sensation. The liquid heat that had pooled in her belly.

  “I don’t remember.” Her voice sounded strangled. “No recollection.”

  “Oh.” Jane looked crestfallen. “When he kisses you again, we want to hear all about it. And don’t look at me like that. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a bit of sex talk. Especially when talking is all I get these days. Books, movies, conversation. That’s it.”

  “True.” Dora nodded. “But we’re embarrassing Fliss, so I think it’s time we minded our own business.”

  “When have you ever minded your own business, Dora Sanders?”

  “Maybe I haven’t, but I’m afraid that if I upset Fliss, she won’t walk Darcy.”

  “I can’t wait to walk Darcy.” She couldn’t wait to get out of here. Fliss grabbed Charlie by the collar and made for the door. “Nice to meet you all.”

  “When you’ve walked Charlie, you should join us. When we finish our game we’re ordering Chinese from the Jade Garden and watching Sex in the City.”

  “You can give us the young person’s view.”

  Fliss blinked. “That’s kind, but actually I’m busy this afternoon.”

  Five pairs of eyes fixed on her face.

  “You’re seeing Seth?”

  “In fact I am. We’re going sailing.” What harm would it do? It was a perfect afternoon for sailing, and if the alternative was hanging around for poker and sex talk, she was definitely out of here.

  Seth, she thought, was the lesser of two evils.

  There was a low murmur of approval from the women at the table.

  “Not so casual, then,” Jane murmured.

  “Don’t rush home,” her grandmother said. “When we’re finished here I’ll be having an early night so I won’t be good company.”

  Were they suggesting that she stay the night with Seth? “I won’t be—”

  “Live while you’re young,” Dora urged and Jane nodded.

  “Before your hips creak.”

  “Go get him, honey,” Rita said, punching the air with her fist.

  Fliss fled.

  * * *

  DORA WAITED UNTIL the door slammed. “Success.”

  “Do you think so?” Martha looked doubtful. “Far be it from me to tell you how to handle your own granddaughter, Eugenia, but I think you almost overplayed your hand there. Especially the part where you tried to get her to stay the night with him.”

  Jane nodded. “Doesn’t do to interfere. That never turns out well.”

  Eugenia slapped her cards on the table. “With my own daughter, I didn’t interfere enough and I should have done. If I have one regret in life, it’s that.”

  Dora put her cards down, too. “You’re too hard on yourself. What could you have done?”

  “I don’t know, but I should have done something. That’s what. I knew that marriage wouldn’t work out, and I stood by and let it happen.”

  “That’s not how I remember it. She made her own decisions, Eugenia. She did what she thought was right for her. And since when did children ever listen to their parents? Even grown children. She probably wouldn’t have listened to you anyway.”

  “Maybe not, but I wish I’d tried.” Eugenia looked at the door, where Fliss had recently disappeared. “When a marriage goes wrong, it doesn’t just affect one person. It reverberates. It’s like an earthquake. It destroys some structures and weakens others.”

  “Fliss doesn’t seem weakened. She’s a strong girl. If nothing else, her childhood taught her how to protect herself.”

  “That’s what worries me.” Eugenia removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes. Since her fall she felt tired. More tired than she had in a long time. It had shaken her feeling of security, made her fear a time she might need to depend on people for help. “She protects herself a little too well. No one can get close to her. She holds everything she feels inside because that bastard my daughter married made her feel worthless.”

  Jane gasped. “Eugenia! Sex talk and poker isn’t enough for you? You have to use that language, too?”

  “If I could think of another word that fitted, I would have used it.”

  “You did what you could. You threw him out of your house.”

  “But she went back to him. She always went back to him.”

  “Love is a complicated thing.”

  “Particularly when it’s one-sided.” Eugenia rubbed her fingers over her forehead. “I should have sold this place and given her the money for a divorce.”

  “You offered. She didn’t want that.”

  “If I’d sold it without telling her, she wouldn’t have had a choice.”

  “And she would have lost the place that was her sanctuary. And a sanctuary for the kids. Every summer she brought them here.”

  “And at the end of every summer they left again. Back to hell.”

  “He abandoned his family a decade ago, Eugenia. Why are you talking about this now?”

  “Because his legacy lives on. I see it in the way Fliss lives her life.”

  “Maybe our sexy vet will change that.”

  “Maybe.” Eugenia made a decision. It seemed so clear, so obvious, she wondered why she hadn’t done it before. She sat up a little straighter. “And maybe he needs a little help. And I’m going to give him that help, even if it means releasing a few skeletons from the closet.”

  “A few? How many skeletons do you have in there?”

  Jane frowned. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then those are your daughter’s secrets, Eugenia. Not yours. If there are things she chose not to tell Fliss, then it’s not your job to do it. It’s not your business.”

  “That’s where we disagree. When her secrets affect her daughter, my granddaughter, it becomes my business. There are things Fliss believes that are just all wrong. And in my opinion my daughter should have set her straight a long time ago. There were things she should have said that she never did. It’s not good for a child to grow up believing something to be the truth when it isn’t.”

  “She must have had her reasons for keeping it quiet.”

  “She did. Just as I have my reasons for coming out in the open.” She picked up her cards. “Now let’s play. I want to win big tonight.”

  “Poker days are always so exciting,” Martha said. “Even though we don’t often finish the game.”

  Jane glanced up. “Are we really going to watch Sex in the City?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then why did you tell her we were?”

  “It was the only thing I could think of that would make leaving the house more appealing than staying.”
<
br />   “Did you see her face? Why is it young people think sex is something just for them? How do they think they got here in the first place?”

  “I think we should watch it.” Jane was hopeful. “Just in case she comes home early and finds we were fibbing.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “POKER AND SEX TALK? They actually called it that?” Seth drove down the narrow roads that led to the water.

  He’d been surprised when she’d texted him, asking him if they could meet earlier.

  She’d sprang into his car and muttered “Drive” without offering any explanation until now.

  He’d been mildly amused by the irony. For years she’d been avoiding him, and now she was treating him like a getaway vehicle.

  “Yes. I heard the words clearly before I went into shock. I mean, their combined age must be close to four hundred.”

  “So they have a lot of experience between them.”

  “I know. And I’m not sure how deeply I want to think about that.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “They probably have their noses pressed to the window right now watching us through binoculars.”

  “Would it bother you?” He didn’t mind if the locals were interested in his life, as long as they didn’t try to influence it the way Vanessa had.

  He’d spoken to her the night before, immediately after Fliss had left. It had been the harshest conversation he’d ever had with his sister. With hindsight he probably should have waited until his temper had reduced from a boil to a simmer, but the thought that Vanessa might have in any way contributed to tearing apart his relationship with Fliss had driven aside restraint.

  Remembering the conversation, he tightened his hands on the wheel.

  Fliss glanced at him. “Is something wrong? You look angry.”

  “Not angry.” He forced himself to relax.

  “Good. For a moment there I wondered if you’d overheard their conversation. They talked about you in lurid detail. Doesn’t that terrify you?”

  “You’re forgetting I’ve lived here for a while. I’m used to them. And then there’s the fact that I don’t scare easily.”

  “Then you’re made of tougher stuff than I am. They scared the hell out of me. I’m not used to talking about personal stuff, particularly not with five women all of whom were over the age of eighty.” She slid her sunglasses onto her nose. “You still sail a lot?”